6.22.2012

{Love You}

I am so excited to finally be sharing this new DahliaLynn Feature with you today since it has been a dream in the works for a
while now. Since I started DahliaLynn a little over a year
ago, writing about style and fashion and taking outfit pictures of myself
has been a real education of where I am with my own self esteem. For
a while now, I have really been wanting to do something special here on DahliaLynn to touch on the topic of self esteem, but I just hadn’t been able to think of a way to bring this topic to the blog in a
way that I thought could raise awareness and empower individuals to show
themselves some self love. I saw THIS commercial recently and it broke my heart.

So I finally sat down to create a regular DahliaLynn feature that addresses both self love and self esteem. I have seen a lot of features lately that have also been encouraging bloggers to be honest about their flaws and share them. I
have really enjoyed the honesty that is coming up more and more in the
blog world. I think many of us think about our flaws on the regular
{if you are anything like me}, so I also wanted to create a space
where we intentionally think about what makes us amazing. So every Friday at DahliaLynn from here on out, I will be sharing a "Love You" feature. I have reached out to several of my friends in the blog world, and I have asked them to answer this question, “Why do you love you?” There are no rules about what they can or can't share, and no specific direction I ask them to go in other than to share what they love about themselves. My
hope is that answering this simple question will encourage all of us to really think about some or even all the things that we
love about ourselves.

So I am here today to kick off the DahliaLynn "Love You" Feature by sharing five of the things that I love about myself....

(1) I love that I am a really empathetic and emotional person. I have just recently started to embrace the fact that tears are a part of my life. I am one of those people who cries when they are happy, sad, and sometimes just because it feels good to cry. I used to be really embarrassed about my crying, but as I have gotten older I have started to realize that a huge part of who I am relates back to my ability to empathize with others and to emotionally connect with so many different types of people. If shedding a few tears along the way is part of the process, bring it on.

(2) I love that I can make people laugh and smile often by just being me. Ask any one of my family members, friends, or co-workers, and they can all share stories about the randomness that follows me in life. Often people close to me will say they wish that I could wear a camera around to tape my daily interactions because they swear that some of my day to day stories do not happen in real life. Ask me some time about my traveling experiences.

(3) I love that I am a really great puppy mom. Shortly after my husband and I got married we rescued Tucker. Tucker is a Goldendoodle and Wheaten Terrier mix, who had come from a dog shelter after being found at a truck stop and abused by his first owner. Though Tucker was the cutest dog I had ever seen, he was an absolute terror. When he was not in his kennel, he was busy eating shoes, chewing furniture, terrorizing the neighbors, and taking me on walks. Think "Marley and Me," but worse. But I never gave up on him. We enrolled in private puppy lessons, and I spent the better part of my evenings working with him. I even had a treat pouch that clipped to my pants for easy treat access during training. I am happy to report today that Tucker is one of the sweetest dogs I have ever had. He is even allowed free roam of the house when we are at work because he is so well behaved. Might not seem like a lot, but the dedication, patience, and love I had to have in order to help Tucker become the dog he is today are qualities I really love about myself, and hopefully these qualities will come in handy as I work to introduce, Charlotte, our new pup into our lives.

(4) I love that I am a good dancer. On some level, I should be because I took 12 years of dance at a studio and was on dance team all through Junior High and High school. But you know not everyone has rhythm...right? I don't get dressed up in spandex and sequins to perform on the regular now like in high school {I usually just wear the sequins to dinner}, but I am never shy on the dance floor.

(5) I love my crazy hair. For my entire life I have had this big, curly, unruly hair. An old friend once said that each of the hairs on my head was like a little Jessica with a mind of its own. And I love that story because my hair has always been such a good representation of me. Especially when it reflects my tendency to spice things up by cutting my own bangs or dying my own hair. Rash decisions, I would not do again, but again reflects the "mind of its own" mentality I take with life.

So there you have it. Five of the things that I really love about me. I will be honest...this exercise is not easy to do because so often we are taught and encouraged to be modest and humble. As I was typing the words above, I kept thinking am I bragging on myself too much. Is this silly? Do I sound full of myself? And really that is just ridiculous because we all have things that we are really good at and proud of that make us who we are. Don't get me wrong being modest and humble are good traits, and I am not suggesting we all walk around telling people how awesome we are all the time. But it doesn't mean we can't shower a little love on ourselves more often. If you are having trouble giving yourself some self love take a little inspiration from this little sweetie HERE.

For those of you that are still reading, I hope that you are excited for what is to come with this new DahliaLynn feature. I have so many amazing bloggers already signed up to answer the question "What do you love about you?" So I encourage you to take a little time today, tomorrow, whenever, to show yourself the love. I can't wait for next week when we will be hearing about what sweet Megan at Hitch Design Studio loves about herself. Happy Friday Sweet Friends....Love...J

I absolutely LOVE this series! It's important as women that we learn to appreciate ourselves for what we are, flaws & all. Thank you for sharing your 5 things you love about you! xo, Lindseywww.caviartaste.com

This is so awesome! Every attribute you outlined here are for sure things that others love about you, I'm sure. So glad you have the courage to say these things-- and it does NOT come off as braggish or boastful! You go girl!

What a wonderful post! Very inspiring, thank you! I too, am a crier! Whether I'm happy, sad, angry (which is always embarassing to cry when I'm mad) I too have always thought it was a good thing, because it reminded me that I am empathetic and in touch with other people. Glad I'm not the only one.

This is such a great feature, what a wonderful idea. It is so true that it is much easier to be hard on ourselves than it is to explain what we love about ourselves. I look forward to what is to come in this feature. Also, LOVE the outfit and balloon accessories! :)

Jessica, you are so great!1. I love that wall in Nashville!2. This is such a great idea to spread a little-self love around... always a good thing!It certainly is hard to think about, much less tell other people, about all the ways you love yourself, but it is definitely a great practice! I can't wait to read some more self-love, and think about my own too!xx Here&Now

Just hopped over from Main Street Chic. Great idea for a series! I bet most of us could quickly come up with a list of things we don't like about ourselves, but would find it particularly difficult to focus on what we do like. I'll be following along!